New boss Paul Jewell says his predecessor Roy Keane can still to go on to be a success in management despite his two-year stint with the Blues having been brought to an early end last week.
Jewell says he hasn’t spoken to the former Ireland skipper, who was relieved of his duties last Thursday after 20 months at Portman Road, but expects him to be back in management sooner rather than later: "I haven’t had any contact with Roy Keane.
"I understand it’s a difficult time when you lose a job and I have great respect for Roy Keane, both as a player and a man. I don’t know him that well, but as a manager he did a fine job at Sunderland.
"For whatever reasons things didn’t work out here but he’ll go on to other things and will I’m sure be very successful."
The ex-Bradford, Sheffield Wednesday, Wigan and Derby boss says he has sympathy with Keane, having been in a similar position himself in the past: "I’m not here to say that Roy Keane failed at Ipswich. It’s always hard when a manager loses his job, it’s happened to a lot of us. Great respect has to be paid to Roy Keane, certainly from my point of view.”
Meanwhile, chief executive Simon Clegg says some of the squad may have found the going too tough under the former boss: "Roy is a demanding individual and some of his players found him particularly demanding.
"At our level we were able to operate very effectively as two professional individuals, but I recognise that the training ground was totally his domain.”